Pomegranate Legwarmers
by Alicorn Tapestry
Summary: Years have passed and the girls are still keeping Townsville safe. But one enemy seems to be long forgotten by everyone...And He would not have it any other way. AU. Hibbles. First of the Garment Trilogy.- edited Repost-/COMPLETE/
1. I

**Authors' Note:**

Final e_dit as of 1/5/12. If you see any errors still, please tell me._

This was my first PPG fanfic ever in the history of my being a fan. I knew nothing about the online fandom and this idea was born 100% from my having watched one too many Him episodes from the glorious complete series set. Here, it gets its final polish. Dates in the trilogy are based on the idea of if time had progressed normally from my view of the girls' birthday (as five year olds) of November 18, 1998 (the start of the official tv series). I do not own Flashdance, 'It's All Coming Back To Me Now', Make-A-Wish, Sex In The City, books, or historical happenings. All ideas addressed in this series of AU works are not meant to support or devalue real life views of religious themes or mindsets, nor teach them. All themes are strictly fictional and meant simply as a study of character dynamics and one possible way Townsville and Him's nature could be introspected. Thank you.

_**Pomegranate Legwarmers**_

_Prologue_

_November 14th, 2009 4:30 am_

A upscale looking house sat on a everyday street in the suburbs of a town with mile high skyscrapers and a very early bedtime. The homes' upper story was dotted with three circular windows, long since dark for hours now.

One glass pane was almost completely blocked by books, the next a collection of famous athlete bobbleheads with worn paint, and the last, a vase holding lifelike silk daffodils.

**The city of Townsville..is no stranger to time. No sir! Time passes here just as it does everywhere.**

A clock ticked away, as though its inner workings were pillowed by some outside calm.

The small room, decorated all in matching shades of sky blue, was a mellow mix of bright, cheery bubblegum pop band posters and clippings from horse magazines hanging in a handmade colleague framed with lace over a small mirrored vanity.

The vanity was second hand, painted two times over, the way it was lovingly layered with stickers, pictures of the owners' friends, and watercolor paintings, lending it a still new sort of charm.

In another corner, an overflowing toy hammock showed proudly the lifes' work of a dedicated stuffed animal collector, holding every type of animal from unicorns to polar bears.

Every animal….save one.

**And like everywhere, nearly eleven years time means that little girls that were once five year olds are now almost sixteen. But unlike everywhere else, Townsville has the help of a special three super powered teenagers, still known as…The Powerpuff girls! It's too bad one of them has been feeling under the….but what's this?**

The blonde haired teenage girl snuggled down holding a small purple octopus wearing a tiny top hat closer to her flushed cheek.

Its' sleepy looking painted gaze stared blankly out into the silence, a moment before her blue ones joined them, snapping open to take in the dim light of not quite morning.

Her fuzzy pom-pom covered slippers hovered a few inches clear of the carpet, littered with used tissues, drifting without a sound to the far window. Opening it slowly with a quick look over her shoulder as the night breeze buffeted the sheer curtains, she flew over the windowsill into the open air.

**Uh oh, hello young lovers, I hope Bubbles knows what she's doing…**

Alone on the rumpled bed, the stitched smile of Octi never wavered as he looked after the neon blue trail that flashed into night sky…and was gone.


	2. Greed

_November 14th, 2009 4:32 am_

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><p><em><strong>Greed.<strong>_

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><p><strong>The underworld of Townsville. Oh, I tell ya I've heard stories about this place. But not that many of anyone ever coming back. What could Bubbles be...<strong>

It was a empty darkness, the sort of pitch black that any mortal eye could tell at a glace had never once in its' eternal life known the light of the sun, nor the the dimmest memory of the moon or a small glimmering star.

A damp cold colorless mist swirled there, embracing the empty void with a breeze that smelled of broken dreams and tasted like the bitter sting of love forever unspoken.

The microphone on an unseen headset screeched and echoed, the whole point of view of the world pulling back with the Narrators' shaken breath.

**Oh no..it can't be..not after all this time..could it really be..Him?**

Suddenly the mist fell aside, two blazing red eyes glaring into the surrounding dark, fixated on the what looked like the tiniest pinprick of light . The dark pulsated to cradle the eyes, the sound of a million hissing scorpions rising up to meet their owners voice, its' tone walking a tightrope between a deep whisper and an all encompassing yell.

"_I thought I said you weren't_ **welcome here**…_you following her like a __dog_….**Go**!"

**But I'm the narrator, I'm a beloved family institution you can't have a story without…Oh God..my eyes…my…**

The sound of the scorpions reached its zenith, their glossy black armor flashing a scurrying glossy black under the red gaze of their master. His deep laugh trailed to an eerie high pitch as the unseen voice screamed, ending in a sickening gurgling sound and...

A light knock, so soft it was only a tap, froze the scene in place.

The giant red eyes turned upward at their corners in an invisible smile before fading from view, a cheery high voice replacing them.

"The door's opeeen… come iiin!"

The darkness melted downward with a quick ooze like liquid, replaced by a dim red light, filling the entire enclosure with the soothing glow of a winter fireplace. Mist embedded along the tiled floor with other signs of unspoken horrors, replacing itself with the smell of fresh cut roses and the taste of homemade cookies.

The door opened with a slow creek to a common everyday apartment bathroom. The figure of Bubbles floating without a word, her fever racked eyes staring downward as she closed the entry way with a soft click.

"Oh my dear, dear, Bubbles don't scare me like that. Why I called for you nearly three minutes ago didn't I, hmmm?"

In a large bathtub brimming with bubbles the creature known as Him raised a stiletto shoe shaped hoof to scrub it with a hot pink shower puff , letting his long, thin, leg slip gracefully back into the water. He sunk down to eye a small rubber duck like a waiting crocodile, his voice not at all effected by the water.

" You know how I worry. Why was I just about to send Bobo here to pick you up. He worries to so much more than **that ungrateful other duckie I use to have…**"

Him's pincher hand stopped Bobo's heroic journey over a rolling bubbly sea at the hollow sound of a cough. Wide inquisitive yellow eyes looked over at their visitor for the first time.

"Awww are you siiick?"

Bubbles nodded weakly, making her waist length hair sway.

"Dear, dear..cooome here…"

Him's shadowed silhouette on the far wall towered over the much smaller shadow of Bubbles as she sheepishly edged nearer.

"…closer…closer… I'm not in the biting mood…"

Another wall of the room, covered completely in mirror, showed Bubbles as she came nearer still, one of her knees bumping lightly into an empty bathtub.

"Down…." Him nearly purred where now lay on his stomach in the tub, claws crossed under his chin at its lip. The teen kneed in a slow bow, the fabric of her pure white nightgown folding to met dark red floor titles.

" Goood now open…"

Bubbles opened her mouth in a silent 'ah' as Him closed his eyes, mimicking the pose with puffed pink cheeks. He drew closer and closer and a breath before their lips were about to touch, turned his head ever so slightly to the left with a echoing sigh. A thimble sized glowing green orb , moving as if it was being reeled in with an invisible line, floated in a void of silence from her mouth, following the path of Him's head before he finally fell all the way backward with a splash.

Bubbles' hands flew self consciously to her mouth in shock and bewilderment.

"Oooh, it's a beautiful one, very fashionable yees." Him giggled , turning the floating orb over in his claw like a jewel to watch it catch the light. "I would have expected no less from you. This could kill in a few weeks time…"

He grinned, watching it drift like a radioactive soap bubble as the teen floated nearby, following it with her eyes just as intently.

"It's really quite delicious. Pop!" Him laughed,bursting the orb on the tip of his claw. At that same moment on the far side of the bathtubs shadow, a brown paper warped box blinked into being.

"You..you made my cold disappear!" Bubble's said, doing half a loop de loop in the air before the reality of the rooms low ceiling sent her back to earth, rubbing her head.

"Uh, uh, ah." Him tisked with a wave. " Nothing ever really goes away sweetie, I can only put it somewhere else. _Oh to be young and invented_."

"Pardon?" Bubbles' asked darting nearer as him reached behind the tub.

"Oh, nothing babies' breath of my flower arrangement, I was just remembering something I forgot to do: mail a package..." He lifted the package up into the light, stamps appearing on its side. "Oh Haaank! **Hank**!"

A puff of smoke sent Bubbles tumbling downward with a yelp in search of cover. What looked like a man on horseback now stood in the bathroom, that just as dramatically seemed now as large as a grand ballroom. The figure dismounted with one swift movement to kneel with a clank of full body armor, the tight potato sack covering over its head showing the clear outline of a bare skull beneath it.

" Hank be a dear and deliver this for me. _Africa, to a mother of at least four children._ Thank you Hank!"

Hank nodded, turning with a grunt to see Bubbles floating this way and that around his mount. He turned back toward his master in dismay, only to be silently shooed away to stand in the background.

Bubbles continued to dart happily around what looked like a pure white Albanian horse as it flung its snowy mane, pawing a polished silver hoof restlessly.

"Oooo a horse, it's so beautiful. I love horses." Bubbles said in awe.

"I know you do, and oh, I do to, I doo.." Him said with a smile. "What I never told you before? I have four… Canterbury-Bell, Pussywillow, Snookywookums, **and Bob**."

As he spoke three other horses puffed into existence in the echoing room. A huge well muscled Clydesdale snorted, it's ruby flaked mane cascading down to mingle on the floor with the golden silk of its' yellow neighbors'. The last was a misty grey Mustang, nearly transparent like fogged glass ,standing a bit away from the others.

"They're wonderful…can I?" Bubbles asked with pleading eyes.

"But of course, here…." Him flicked a claw, sending a tiny red beam to encase both of the young girls arms in a red glow. "_Can't have your arms falling off can we?"_

"What?" Bubbles asked from her little circle of horse petting bliss.

"Nevermind…what iiis iit?" A soft forlorn sounding squeak of his rubber ducky turned Him in that direction.

The towering form of Hank, cape bellowing behind him in a non-existent breeze, answered with a smallest of steps forward, still holding the package.

Him growled, rolling his eyes and pointing toward the door.

"Can't you see we're **using them?** You've got two perfectly good legs..**walk**!"

Slowly, sadly, with his cape limp, the living embodiment of pestilence slinked of into the shadows like a disciplined puppy, head bowed.

"**Good help is so hard to find**…So which one do you like my dear?"

"Bob I think..He…he…likes me to…" Bubbles giggled.

The pale horse whinnied, burying his slender muzzle in Bubbles cupped hands.

Across the room on the mirror covered wall, the bare skeleton of a horse dipped its' nose into the girls own skeletal arms with the odd hinged movement of a shadow puppet.

" As he should.._he can be yours from now on_, _nothing is too good for my __wife_…**nothing**…" Him smiled with a slow sly look from what was now a bathtub as big as a swimming pool.

"Now..come and scrub my back won't you?"


	3. II

_November 14th, 2009 7:00 am_

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><p>The sky was warm and sunny, as mornings in Townsville always were with many smiling, happy, faces being seen off to another day of school.<p>

Talking dogs' barked cheeky hellos, smaller slime monsters named Joe waited for the bus next to little old ladies, and a trio of single celled organisms contemplated jaywalking with lazy grins.

In the pure blue sky, happy smiling bluebirds even flew along to the beat of countless sets of cheerful skipping feet.

But three perfectly in sync beams of light marked the clear progress of three not so smiling faces:

Blossom with her nose planted firmly in a huge book, Buttercup with two pieces of double buttered toast planted just as firmly in her mouth, and Bubbles yawning loudly.

"Don't you start, you'll get me doing it to." Buttercup said with a swallow, adjusting her hair barrettes .

Her newest hobby, dying her short black hair outlandish colors to better be picked out in sporting events, had turned into what had a dim edge of caring what others thought of her appearance. No one, not even Blossom, had dared breathe a word about it.

Today that color happened to be navy blue, held barely in check with every non-flowery hair clip in the house.

"The last thing I need is to fall asleep on the soccer field again. Cleat marks on the nose _aren't_ cool you know."

"Sorry." Bubbles peeped, yawning again before she caught herself , hiding guilty look.

"Girls, we have to focus!" Blossom said, clicking a calculator on top of the table sized book. " If we want a trouble free day on our birthday we have to work extra hard to fight all the monsters that show up until then."

"Aww _all_ of them?" Her sisters whined in unison.

"All of them!" Blossom replied with a self-righteous nod.

"Say…Blossom?" Bubbles peeped.

"What is it?" Blossom asked, brushing a happy bluebird out of her face where it had been nearly plastered by their traveling speed.

"About... enemies..do you remember that _one_ we use to fight? Back when we were little?" Bubbles asked, her voice trailing off to barely a whisper.

"Here we go again…" Buttercup sighed, rolling her eyes over the edge of her Gameboy.

Blossom floated over, giving her younger sisters shoulder a reassuring rub.

"Bubbles, the lobster handed man with the creepy voice again? How many times do I have to tell you:it was just a dream." Blossom said slowly with a steady gaze. " Nothing of that level of concentrated evil could _logically_ exist in the real world. It was only a series of nightmares."

"Yeah, really _bad_ ones we all got from all of those corny old horror movies we use to watch." Buttercup added in.

Blossom's eyes lit up with long ago memories.

" I remember..remember _Gecko vs. Mothca_?"

" Oh yeah, was my favorite." Buttercup said with a grin, shadowboxing a passing cloud before zipping to hug the other side of Bubbles.

"Besides, if something that evil had been real do you really think the world would still _be_ here? I don't _think_ so..."

" I guess it does sound _silly_ when you put it that way..." Bubbles mumbled.

"Now, about the party, I was thinking an Egyptian theme would be really fun and..." Blossom said, showing all the signs of starting one of her famous filibusters.

Bubbles fell back to fly at a slower pace behind them , her eyes lost in thought as her fingerless palm pressed tightly against her throat.

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><p><em>November 15th, 2009 ...3:45 am<em>

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><p><em>"Three blind mice..."<em>

A voice, without ever pausing for breath, rose and fell...

_"...three blind mice..."_

... singing notes filled with the uneasy tide of mixed emotions that the world clasped to its chest each night like a teddy bear...

_"See how they run..."_

It's warm baritone, unheard and unfelt, had long melted into the fibers of the rooms blue carpet hours ago, lapping at the foot of the bed.

_"They all ran after the framers' wife..."_

Two sleeping heads, separated only by a pair of thin walls, slept on just as soundly when the song helped push aside quilts, and two pom-pom slippered feet stepped downward.

**"...who cut off their tails with a carving knife..."**

Upon the bed, Octi stared on as the shadow of a window being opened passed again over his vacant grin...

_"...such a sight in you're life..."_

...and his unblinking eyes were left to contemplate the sight of countless stars in their frame of wind blown curtains.

_"...as three blind mice..."_


	4. Vanity

_November 16th, 2009 1:22 am_

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><p><strong>Vanity.<strong>

* * *

><p>"I still don't understand <em>how you<em>..."

Upon the red tinted wall an intricate shadow puppet unfolded itself, its' humanoid shape outlining the model like perfection of a young Adonis with long flowing hair.

"_Shall I tell you the story then, hmm?"_

"A-alright..."

Within the pitch black shape suspended by wire thin rods, finely carved gears clicked and whirled with a life of their own to the forlorn music of a single violin.

"Once upon a time my loooks were beyond measure, _I'm not one to brag but my glorious self was...glorious_. But more than my handsome face, more beloved to me that my _rippled_ elegance_ in all the right places_, were my fantastic wiiings..."

From within the dark shape two white wings made of the finest mixture of tissue paper and lace burst forth in a gleam of light. They dwarfed the body of the puppet two times over, beating in time to the music as the character zipped this way and that. In a corner, the tiny shadow puppet outline of Bubbles as her five-year-old self cleared her throat softly.

"But you don't need anything to fl..."

**"Whose story is this?"**Him's voice snapped.

"Sorry..." The puppet Bubbles answered, dropping from view.

"Anyway, my mighty wiiings and I were sent down for the first time one day to keep an eye on earth. I, in my innocence was pleased with every little thing..."

Below the puppet angel of perfection a landscape of white unrolled, buzzing with paper cutout life. As he flew the puppet of little Bubbles fell into 'step' beside him, sporting a craved smile of silent approval.

"Hello tree!"

A once bare tree perked up at the honeyed greeting, heavy with fruit and singing birds.

"Hello flower!"

A tiny tulip grew up to cover the side of a castle with greenery, as at its highest tower a princess waved a handkerchief in thanks. As the scene scrolled by at the very edge behind the two, the top most bud of the vines opened in rows of sharp teeth, swallowing the princess without a sound.

"Hello polar bears!" Hello land!"

A mother and baby polar bear, barely still afloat on a tiny iceberg, was suddenly surrounded by a wide span of refrozen wonderland. With a roar both paper bears rose up on their hind-legs, one of them lifting what looked like a soda bottle.

Just a step away, two odd cut shapes marked North Dakota and South Dakota popped together to be remarked simply 'Dakota'.

"But oooh, oh, I was sooo naive," Him sighed, his voice flickering between its everyday high and low tones with a practiced flare. "I didn't realize that this assignment was actually **a punishment** ... A punishment **others knew would be carried out by..you girls**...on the very day you were born."

Three beams of light in the scenes eerie monochrome colors dashed across the pretend horizon, sending feathers flying like a frilly of upturned snow.

The angel puppet fell to 'earth' with a last jerking twitch, the force of its impact crumpling the ground below. Slowly, ever so slowly, red ink flowed across the paper, enveloping the figure...The puppets hands became pincers of living blood red liquid, clicking to life as once blue eyes opened to reveal glowing yellow orbs.

"Alast, my _beautiful body_, never meant to be in contact with the earth, **the pain, the horrible pain** of hands_ misshaped_, of feet_ forever bonded_ into not at all sensible shoes! So **it was then I swore my eternal vengeance against**...Why are you looking at me that way? Don't you believe meee?"

The space, once the native habitat of bathtubs and rubber ducks, today had been recreated into a cozy upscale flats' living room. Plush red carpet met the foot of an expensive looking settle where Him sat, talking and happily painting his toenails. The dark mists of the underworld swirled just out of sight, seeping between the dozens of polish bottles. Bubbles lay on her stomach chewing gum and flipping thought a fashion magazine just across from him, completing the picture with an odd aura of harmony.

In their own shadow on the other side of the room, the menacing form of Hank sat cross-legged with three other hooded figures, all huddled together like preschoolers at circle time.

"It is a very sad story but..." Bubbles voice echoed in the forgotten place. "I don't remember any of that..."

"Smart girl. _You'd be surprised how many people buy that 'you made me' trash..._" Him said with a chuckle, putting a tenth coat on the tips of his razor sharp hoofs. " But careful now, you almost broke one of the golden ruuules ..."

"You Mean: Neither of us talks about work...Don't say your name..and don't question your stories? Those ones?" Bubbles asked, snapping her gum loudly.

"Bingo! You don't cry, I don't throw up, and **no one gets loses a nose from sticking it anywhere they shouldn't**."

The distant four horsemen raised their hooded faces at the sound of Hims' demonic voice, falling back to work on the unseen something between them a moment later with renewed vigor.

"But I don't even know your name..." Bubbles sniffed a perfume sample, looking up at Him with curious wide eyes. "What _does_ happen if someone says it?"

"Why they..." Him froze mid- brush stroke, neon green polish dotting the rug. "I think their face melts off...Maybe they get deported?... Or **do I just eat them alive**?...Ah, it's been so looong I couldn't say..."

His face slowly drew into a wide clown like grin as he flopped forward to where Bubbles lay, grabbing one of her bare feet.

"Now I'll do yours!.."

Bubbles sat up, wiggling her 'toes' with bemused look at how such a large claw could still hold something as delicate as any sort of beauty brush.

"Oooh, like little pearls practically _screaming_ for Watermelon Glimmer..._Not like my jealous finger-toe troop_, they can barely pull off Peach Fizzypop."

Him glared to the side where the four houseman where now holding a large poster made in the shape of a crudely cutout constitution paper Valentines Day heart. Slowly, sadly, one half of the heart slid from its over glued base, revealing a very crushed looking Hank.

"Oh..." Bubbles looked at the group for a long moment as the room fell into silence, set to the happy hum of Him painting tiny daisies on her toes . "Why..."

"Because!" Him giggled. "Oh this is fun! Ask me another!"

Bubbles voice was heavy as she tried again.

"No...I mean...why did you quit?'

"Well, that record club wasn't for me." Him said with a shrug. "When you're asking for show tunes and _they keep sending nothing but polkas _it's simply time to tow the line..."

"No I mean...why did you quit... attacking Townsville?" Bubbles laugh faded at her last words, heavy with the fear of ruining what had been an almost peaceful talk.

"Oh, that old song and dance. My, aren't we a sentimental little bee today?.. I didn't quit, I only got a slice of something tastier: perspective."

In the background three of the four horsemen were now completely covered in glue, flailing helplessly on the floor. Hank poked at the glob tentatively before the sentient glue suddenly grew a gigantic arm, dragging him into the mess with a loud slurp.

"Perspective?" Bubbles asked.

"That's right dear, perspective. Zero calories and one hundred percent satisfaction." Him nodded, dotting Bubbles last toe with a figure that in the right light looked surprisingly like a peach human highbred from Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. "The fact is I was so fixated on your itty bitty little town I almost forgot myself...my powers..**the real me**..."

"But..y..you were so strong.." The girl whispered, picking out the half melted shape that used to be called Mr. Quackers nestled among the nail polish bottles.

"..But that you could even stall me _at all_...many times, is the proof in the figgy pudding... " Him growled, his hold on her foot growing tighter bit by bit. "Ooh, I remember **how angry** I was that last day ... I was going **to return with unparalleled glory and give you girls a good talking to**..."

"Ow!"

The creature let the teenage girls' ankle fall from his grip with a look bordering on regret, his other claw moving slowly to rub the same spot on his own leg.

"It was going to be just like old times, **the chaos**,** all of it**.." He whispered, his breathing growing heavy with delight. ".. But, you remember..."

"...Our wedding day." Bubbles finished, gathering up just enough courage to look him in the eye again.

"Yeees." Him purred, his claw tracing the pincer mark on her skin.

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><p><em>November 17th, 2005 ?:? pm<em>

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><p>Curtains drawn against the bright afternoon sunlight cloaked the pink, blue, and green paint of the large bedroom in deep shades of grey.<p>

Heavy muffled sobbing was the only sound, so weak that no one passing the doorway would have given the empty room a second thought.

The eleven-year-old girl sat within the comforting pile of her stuffed animals, all but the tip of her head hidden from view, as her thoughts made the world spin.

"I have so!" The memory of her own voice snapped.

"On the cheek kisses don't count!" The nasty words of Princess Morbucks rang, their weight squeezing a new wave of tears from her eyes. "Everyone knows boys only like you if you can kiss good. Do you want to be poor, old, and _alone_?"

"No..." Bubbles whispered, pounding a fist into the side of a tattered looking lion and sending its cotton insides shooting across the room in back of her toy pile.

"Things have to happen when it's time, it's just time now is all." Came Blossom's sensible happy voice.

"It'll be great, our own rooms, our own spaces to actually be _alone_!" Buttercup's voice agreed.

Bubbles burrowed down deeper into her plush cocoon, bringing her beloved octopus up to look at his ever composed face though tear blurred eyes.

"But I..I don't want to be.. alone...Octi, I don't want to be..."

Octi only smiled, his painted eyes just as gentle and understanding as she had ever remembered them to be.

"You..won't leave me..will you...?"


	5. III

**Chapter 5: III**

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><p><em>November 17th, 2009 3:45 pm<em>

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><p><strong>The City of Townsville...is doing well. And so am I! Whew, good thing I stocked up on that anti-venom. I'll be staying out here on <strong>_**this**_** side of this stories hereafter with all the blessed, blessed, sunlight...Where the girls are really cleaning up ! Go girls.. go?**

Somehow, the little villain that had been teasing the teenage protectors of Townsville for the last ten minutes or so seemed to have endless energy.

It could be the fact that his father was watching from afar like a silent pillar of sunglasses wearing judgment...but it was more likely the overstuffed bag of multicolored lollipops he had swinging from one hand.

"Nah, nah, Powerpops, Powerpops!" The five-year-old leered, gripping an oversized candy in his teeth as he turned to moon the floating heroes. Blossom and Bubbles turned away from the scene while Buttercup sighed, flying forward to pull faded blue overalls back up over his green bottom.

She sighed again, holding the boy at arms length as he wiggled wildly, caught like a worm at the end his own straps .

"I can't believe its come to _this_. Really? Spunk: The Wonder Greenling? " Buttercup raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, leggo, leggo!" Spunk interjected, trying his best to get within biting distance of Buttercup's arm without any success.

A distant voice echoed, it's accent almost as well known to Townsville by now as its clanging subway trains:

"Don't give up! You remember what daddy told ya'! Keep at it 'till you can't no more!"

Bubbles flew up to the side of the little criminal, giving him a serious once over look from the tips of his beat up sneakers to his bright, angry yellow eyes beneath a mop of long black hair.

"Blossom said we have to take care of _every_ villain attacking Townsville. And he's still a villain...right?"

Both girls turned to their leader rubbing her chin in thought before she couldn't help herself any longer, laughing out loud at the sight of the spinning robber.

"Well, stealing candy _is_ against the law...but I think he's learned his lesson well enough..."

"What's a matter Powerpops, are you scaredy cats?" Spunk smirked, fishing something out of his front pouch and letting it fly backward. "Go Flame-Yo!"

What looked like a normal toy, dosed in lighter fluid and set on fire, shoot out in an 'Around the World' loop, hitting Buttercup squarely in the nose.

"Ow!" She yelped, rubbing her nose with one hand, and grabbing the offending toy from the loathsome kindergartner with the other, sending him into a howling fit of tears. "Who ever heard of using a _yo-yo_ for a weapon? Please, can I pound him, _please_?"

"I don't know, are you sure you're not just blaming him for old fights? He can't help what his mom and dad use to do to us..." Blossom's face drew into a knowing smile. "Or are you just _disappointed_ still?"

"Wa...Disappointed? About what?" Buttercup asked.

The smallest Gangreen Gang member saw his chance, wriggling away to bury his freckled green face in the edge of Bubbles' dress with a new sob of pretend tears.

"About Ace...picking someone else..." Blossom continued matter-of-factly, rolling her eyes playfully in the distant gang leader's direction. "I remember _someone_ use to really..."

"That's crazy talk..he's like, at least _thirty_..." Buttercup stuttered, her face getting redder and redder with every word. "Besides, who would want to have a little green twerp like Spunk for a so...What the heck? Bubbles!"

The sight of Bubbles kneeing down to give the little boy a slip of paper and pat him on the head before sending him off was almost otherworldly, set to a happy whistling tune in front of a imagined scene of a smiling crayon sun and doodled daisies.

"... and you have a good time, they give out free candy to!" Bubbles said with a smile.

" Gee, thanks!" Spunk answered with a grin, turning to skip off.

"Is that any way for you to be talk'n to a Powderpuff?" Ace's voice yelled from his shadowed vantage point.

"Oh, yeah..." Spunk nodded, turning to give Bubbles a lite kick in the shins and mouthing 'thanks'.

He was still smiling as he ran off and grabbed his father's hand, loping along with Ace into the gritty back allies of the city.

"Bubbles! Did you just give Spunk some of our free tickets to Fantasyworld?" Buttercup growled.

"We're always saving the day, and getting more than we could ever use... So I thought since waitress don't make too much money maybe..."

"How do you know Sedusa works as a waitress?" Blossom asked, her words unusually weighted.

"I..I just...guessed is all..." The youngest hero whispered, fidgeting.

Buttercup's eyes widened suddenly in revelation.

"Wait a minute, Bubbles, have you just been giving _everyone_ our three day..."

* * *

><p>A man dressed in the clean, well-starched, pink candy striped uniform of Townsvilles' most famous theme park stood with his mouth agap in amazement.<p>

In front of the ice cream cart only a bobbing, purple striped white turban could be seen, moving in time with the very short customers' speech:

"Hello, I would like one Mikey ice cream. That is, I wish to give you money which you in exchange will exchange with me, so that I may posses a chocolate dipped vanilla flavored novelty in the shape of your nations mascot, and in so possessing the ice cream that I wish to buy, I may lower my body temperature and obtain at moment of the allusive happiness which your land is said to reciprocate..."

* * *

><p>"Only the last five..." Came the barely audible answer.<p>

Buttercup had just put on a fresh glare and opened her mouth to start the debate anew when a giant shadow grew out of nowhere, putting its foot down on the matter.

"Oh..." Bubbles began, the end of the blurted out exclamation muffled by the huge scaly foot careening down on their heads.

"Bubbles!" Her sisters replied in lizard smothered shock.

"I think we have to have a serious talk after this..." Blossom grunted as the three heaved the monster's foot up from the cracked pavement, darting into the sky.

The ruby scaled dragon like monster roared in fury , its one bright green eye firing a laser beam up toward the flying specks that twilled and ducked, easily avoiding the giant red beams.

"Well, like it or not, _this_ guy's way too big for Fantasyworld's turnstyle..." Buttercup said as the three turned in unison, headed right toward their attacker's eye.

" That's okay, exercise is fun to!" Bubbles said with a smile, speeding up in a flash of blue light.

Buttercup could only blink for a split second before she finally found her voice again.

"Did Bubbles just use the words 'exercise' and '_fun_' in the same sentence?"

* * *

><p><em>November 17th, 2009 10:50 pm<em>

* * *

><p>The shadow's progress through the misty fall night was slow.<p>

What would have normally been a flash of blue that tore leafs from the trees, sending caterwauling felines diving for cover as puffed up balls of fur ,was now only a high speed flight fast enough to rattle windows as it passed.

"Okay, out with it, who is he?" Blossom snapped.

"He?"

"Your _boyfriend_ you're always going to see, we're not _dumb_ you know." Buttercup chimed in.

Bubbles dipped down as she flew, the memory of her sister's voices adding countless pounds to the blue and white trimmed duffel bag she carried.

"How..did you know?"

"We're sisters, it's our job. There's nothing to be ashamed about... But he seems..to have been teaching you..._things_. I'm not sure if he is the best influence, frankly. "

"I bet he's a jock. I'd like to meet him some time..."

"I..can't let you ...do that..."

Bubbles gave her head a rough shake, trying to get rid of the queasy feeling that was working its way up from her stomach at her own words as they rang over and over, Buttercup and Blossom's following quickly after them like conscience haunting ghosts.

"Ooo, he isn't in _college_ is he? Bubbles..I know I don't say this a lot..or at all..but..you might wanta.. be careful..."

"That's right, you know there's only _one thing_ guys like that want..."


	6. Lust

November 17th, 2009 ?:?

* * *

><p><strong>Lust.<strong>

* * *

><p>In the darkness somewhere behind where nightmares are born shadows moved, swaying like moths around a flame. The figures grew long and willow thin one moment, casting their black hands up against the walls of ruby tinted stone, only to die down in the next beat. All and all, this scene could have just as well have been for the dawn of human time, shadows spinning in endless worship of the god of fire..if the two figures didn't happen to be dancing in mid-air...or wearing legwarmers.<p>

_Pictures come alive, now I'm dancing through my life! What a feeling!_

The driving electric synthesizer backed beat of the theme from Flashdance blared on as the two bumped hips, the sparkle adored leotard the girl wore catching the light of a dozen mufti-colored beams.

The creature beside her faded from one place to another in the air as the song faded at last. In a perfect finish they posed with the flare of tango dancers, floating back down to earth in a fit of laughter.

"Oh, it really is sooo much better with two!' Him said, shaking down the hood of his green sweatshirt where they lay on floor.

"It is fun!" Bubbles laughed, half sitting up from the heap to pet a black cat that trotted out of the shadows across the pink carpeting. "Good Scruples..."

The cat blinked, its yellow eyes adjusting to the light before it quickly stick up its nose with a proud air to match its three lashing tails. Bubbles gasped in shock as the tomcat leaped from under her hand, and letting out a low growl, brought a full set of claws and all ten pounds of a Siamese like build down upon a figure that sat in the shadows.

"Yes, goood Scruppy..." Him agreed with a grin.

The meek, well scratched Hank pushed a hanging eye back its socket to the backdrop of Him's giggling, slowly lowering his other arm from the side the skull outlining sack helmet.

"Oh Hank, don't be such a fuddy duddy, at least my musical taste is than better Mojo's... simply muuurdering Tears For Fears. They could have called in someone with razzle dazzle, but nooo..._I swear, like a caveman with a sinus infection..__**.**_"

The living incarnation of pestilence put up a finger as if to interject, only a cloud of soundless dust and a stray moth from somewhere within his skull sack coming out for all his effort.

Bubbles looked on with a considering glance between the two as Him seemed to hear something after all, tisking his servant.

" Not just a spoon, a rusty spoon. The added leverage gets out the entire eardrum. "

Him turned his attention to Bubbles with a wide smile of approval.

"You're getting so good my little apricot pretty sooon we might be able to take our show on the road..."

"When I was little I did always want to be a ballerina..." Bubbles said in a dreamy voice, stepping from 1st, to 2nd and finally 3rd position in her bare feet.

"Ooh, it's all there my butterbean," Him spun on the tip of a tennis shoe, following her lead. " The potential, the dedication! Why with my tutorage in grace you could be prima!"

"You really think so?" Bubbles bit her lip, sitting down on the sofa under a sudden familiar weight in her stomach.

Him twirled on, not noticing her sudden change of mood.

"Think? I knoow! We're like well matched leg warmers, never in style but with a oh soo comfy mix that will warm the world!"

He flew around the room, leaping and skipping to each sing song word of an off meter beat.

_"A sun haired angel from Townsville afar, her only wish: to be a star!_

_With velvet gown, with blue gossamer sheen,_

_Hearken to her dance: The fairy queeen!"_

Him wilted down in mid-dance step, finally seeing Bubbles sitting with a sad glazed expression.

"But you love rhyme time. _I love rhyme time..." _He darted over, ruffling her long hair with a claw where he stood behind the sofa_. "_Is something wrong? _**Can I kill it**_?"

"It's just Blossom..nothing," Bubbles whispered.

"Blossom what?" Him said with a frown. "What nasty thing did that little know nothing fill your head with, hmmm?"

Bubbles tried to speak again, her voice cracking halfway with effort.

"B..Blossom s...said you only like me b..because you w..want..."

Him leaned nearer to catch the next few words that fell like an unknown foreign language from the girls lips.

His pointed ear twitched as his suddenly lost control, falling over in a fit of laughter.

"Is it..true?" Bubbles asked.

"Oooh that's rich, just rich and creamy.." Him laughed to himself, "Imagine, Blossom! Although, _I do so love getting recognition for my work_."

In a corner of the spacious room a pink make up table with a large oval mirror appeared, soon joined by Him in a puff of smoke, perched upon its adjoined throne like pink chair.

"About this I won't lie sweetie: Men are pigs, all of them. It's true some are thoose adorable little pot bellied ones you keep in the house on rhinestone collars and call Professor Mcwiggles the 3rd; but still, pigs."

"Really? But I thought you..." Bubbles begin, hovering into the background within the mirror's view.

"Who do you think taught them all?" Him said with a grin, sharpening the end of a worn black eyeliner pencil with the point of his claw.

"But I thought you didn't like...I mean I always heard all the other villains say... you were.." Bubbles trailed off with a weighted look.

"My, my, you pride yourself on having a flexible voice and appreciating pretty things and the rumor mills tiny wheels just go clicky clickety clack, don't they?"

Him closed an eyeshadow case with a snapping 'click', his eyes flicking across to the reflected Bubbles.

"Those that live in well moisturized houses shouldn't throw their flammable panties, **it's not nice**."

The chair swiveled with a sharp jerk, bringing the demon's face within an inch of Bubbles own, making the teenager gasp.

"Noo dear, I find you very lickable, veery."

The tip of a long tongue slowly traced the hint of pink just behind Him's black lipstick.

Bubbles flew backward just as slowly, one hand moving down to her stomach.

Him spat with the edge of a much deeper, cocky laugh.

"Don't worry, why if I wanted you for _that_ you already would be."

Bubbles let out a relieved breath.

"My... 'elegance' is nothing if not...potent. I have eight hundred and forty five children, all very..."

One of Him's large pointed ears twitched again, this time turning the demon's whole head toward its unheard source.

"Oooh, scratch that, eight hundred forty six. **Come**!"

Bubbles floated carefully over to examine the tiny being that popped out of nowhere in answer to Him's voice:

About the same size as a small toddler, with red skin the texture of interlocked puzzle pieces and black button eyes, the doll creature clicked with the sound of antique unoiled clockwork as it moved, holding a quill pen up to a long length of parchment.

"Lucinda, the classical spelling. My girls are never a passing fad**..**and my boys, **well..** "

The doll clicked twice as if in agreement in such a cute sounding tone that Bubbles hid a small half smile.

"Fruit basket, balloon with teddy bear inside, shoo now... "

The toy bowed deeply, the spring that made up its neck bobbing twice before it popped again from view.

"Where were we? Ooh, fancy Blossom reminding me... a good workout, ..._**my other favorite hobby**_..."

It was a odd long moment the befitted the unique magic of the place when Bubbles found herself again, passing in a flash of time...

It took only half that time for Bubbles enhanced senses to notice the pressure against her body, and the fact that she now happened to be on her back, laying down bent over the arm of a sofa that had certainly near been there before that moment.

For a creature she had spent all her life seeing as something more akin to a marionette than anything of flesh and bone, the body that now lay half cater-corner upon her, propping itself up on its elbows on ether side of her chest, was remarkably heavy.

The tip of a giant scorpion tail flicked with the lazy question mark grace of a pleased cats' over the edge of his completely nude form.

_"Surprised? They always are, you know."_ Him said, his much softer voice laced with a suggestive smile that was no longer edged with lipstick.

His angular features were somehow smoothed and softened around a greek nose by the same magic that had grown his hair longer, falling in black curls just above large green eyes.

Without his everyday eyeliner, in the light making the features of his slightly rearranged face and the edges of his well muscled body glow the color of a well polished cheery wood, the girl turned the first word that popped into her mind over and over again with startled wide eyes:

Handsome.

_"So this is your type, is it?"_

Him turned his new, slightly thicker arm toward the disembodied candle light like glow as if seeing it for the first time, watching the veins slowly move beneath his skin.

_"Who would ever suspect, which of my eternal enemies would ever dream? My perfect hiding spot..."_

His green eyes flicked downward, a soft hiss escaping from between clinched pointed teeth.

_" What else suits my lady? Yees..yees...you like that don't you?..."_

Bubbles gasped as Him's clawed grip suddenly pinned her arms to the white satin sheets.

The bed that had once been a sofa was bathed in the sight and scent of scattered rosepetals as the sound of a deep breathless tenor singing voice mixed with the rip of two razor sharp hoofs against fabric.

_"There were those empty threats and hollow lies...And whenever you tried to hurt me I just hurt you even worse..and so much deeper..."_

Pure darkness echoed with shallow breathing.

_"...Your fancy, let me... __**tickle it**__..."_

Bubbles finally found her own tense shaking breath away from the demon's mouth.

**"Nooo!"**

The blue waves of a sonic scream flung Him's naked body into the air... crushing a perfect indent of his backside into the room's cave wall.

Bubbles sat up slowly as Him slid down the wall like a swatted bug, eyelid twitching below a shocked stare.

In a snap glowing red eyes and a snarl replaced all else, drawing shadow around itself, an angry storm of night rolling with hollow thunder.

_**"You dare.. ...a woman... refuse...refuse me? Meeee? Meeee...!"**_

The echoing screech grew louder and higher into a cry like a wounded hawk fighting against the roar of a demonic lion, sending rocks tumbling down from the walls.

Bubbles gasped as Hank suddenly appeared, sheltering her body with his own giant form and clasping his gloved hands over the sides of her head.

A voice, dry and worn like the memory of wind against a unkempt gravestone suddenly blew from the servants bare skull, smoothing over the backgrounds roar.

"Mistress' pretty ears not brake. Hank save pretty ears from Master..."

"You _do_ talk!" Bubbles gasped as the screech and last of the shaking finally died away.

"Mistress hear? Everyone, Mistress hear!" Hank let out a whoop like wind being drawn through a dead tree. " Happy day, Mistress!"

In the background a sudden din of thousands of voices roared up to meet her ears even under Hank's protection. Their words rose and fell, so interwoven that she could not even make out if any were speaking English.

"You mean..all these years..there were always other..things..watching us?" Bubbles asked, wrinkling her flat nose.

"No such law, any private here," Hank shrugged.

"_Well, it's still very rude_." Bubbles mumbled to herself in Spanish.

_**"Begone you..yoou worms!" **_Him's disembodied voice bellowed, casting the room into unnatural silence once again.

The body of Him quickly followed his words, back to his everyday appearance , but now wearing an extra fuzzy pair of green footie pajamas dotted with yellow rubber duckies.

"**Fine.** _Fine then,_" Him said, letting out a huff where he sat cross-legged in the air, arms folded tightly to his be-ducked chest.

Far below, Bubbles tried her best to escape the fresh glare.

"I can wait for those pesky slow hormones to kick in_, they always do_. No one can accuse me of not being... a... patient man...Baseball, baseball... dart!"

Him reappeared in a far corner, this time hanging upside down with a sour grimace.

"Hmmm..Make-A-Wish Foundation ..Make-A-Wish..Oooh, that works a little too well, ooh, my poor stomach..."

Him drifted halfway to the floor like a sickened fall leaf as Bubbles and Hank looked on.

"Master and a Mistress no able to force each other will. Is oldest law," Hank whispered behind one of his oversized hands.

"That doesn't sound evil," Bubbles whispered back.

"Doesn't it now?" Him spat, his tone of voice alone sending Hank crawling into the shadows. "This marriage that even noow makes you forget, that forbids me from ripping your arm out this instant and using it for a toothpick?"

"No." Came the flat reply.

"That makes us.. both... want cuddles?" Him said, his voice quickly fading to a hopeful sing-song. "I promise nether the two shall meet..."

Bubbles looked at her hanging husband in silence for a long moment before finally nodding. Him reappeared next to where the powerpuff lay, tucking his chest against her back and his mouth into the nook of her throat.

Bubbles shivered, only partly from the difference in their body temperatures.

Him spoke again, a heated breath against her skin.

* * *

><p><em>?,?, 1998<em>

* * *

><p><em>"Looking back, I really should have seen all the signs..."<em> _Him's voice echoed._

_**"Noo..."**_

The skeleton of the once twenty story sky scrapper melted into darkness again as pinpoints of fire and the memory of Him's cry of defeat faded from the sky. A moment later a small shadow darted to its side, gazing into the ruins with wide blue eyes.

"C'mon Bubbles, let's go already!"

Small fingerless hands worked with the tireless pace of a bulldozer and were soon dirty and worn, as the top of two stitched eyes and a hovering hat finally made their owner gasp.

"Octi..don't worry..I know you didn't mean to be bad..." Bubbles whispered, hugging her doll tight.

_"I should have known..but I was sooo weak...my magic had to use..."_

Bubbles hugged the bit of fabric and stuffing tighter as she joined the two girls and flew into the night, the moonlight catching the edge of a tiny pinpoint that glinted like a ruby in the toy's left eye ..and was gone.

_"The signs..the..the.. __**oral hygiene**__."_

Five year old Bubbles hummed with a happy grin as she scrubbed Octi's stitched mouth with a large toothbrush in the bathroom mirror, filling the room with a peppermint colored foam as her sisters rolled their eyes.

Somewhere, Him opened his mouth in his vanity mirror to find glimmering white pointed teeth.

_"And who can forget the.. __**incident**__ with the vacuum cleaner..."_

Bubbles lifted up a bedraggled Octi, its stuffing spilling out onto the carpet in the shadow of the Professor's saddened frown. Her eyes slowly filled with tears as somewhere unheard a bloodcurdling scream shook the underworld.

* * *

><p><em>November 17th, 2005 ?:? pm<em>

* * *

><p><em>"But in the end..."<em>

Bubbles burrowed down deeper into her plush cocoon, bringing her beloved octopus up to look at his ever composed face through tear blurred eyes.

"But I..I don't want to be.. alone...Octi, I don't want to be..."

Octi only smiled, his painted eyes just as gentle and understanding as she had ever remembered them to be.

"You..won't leave me..will you...?"

_"...in the end __**I am glad it was you**__..."_

Octi's smile did not waver as she smiled in return, the corners of her mouth trembled with the effort of holding back fresh tears.

"You'll always love me..." Bubbles whispered, slowly closing her eyes and drawing the toy closer.

_"Blossom loves to fight__** her demons**__..and Buttercup holds __**her rage very dear**__..."_

In the still darkness of the room, in the same breath as the innocent practice kiss, a tiny glint of red light passed down into the girls throat, her eyes opening with a yellow flash.

_**"But you...you're the one that laughs..."**_


	7. Wrath

November 17th, 2009 ?:?

**Wrath.**

"Four hundred, sixty-two."

"**Hmmm?**"

"Four hundred and sixty-two. That's how many times I hit you..that day."

"How sweet, yoou remembered!"

"You were _counting_."

"Well, dear heart, after the first hundred it does become sooo romantic."

- _November 17th, 2005 ?:? pm_-

The cloak of darkness parted with a beam of sunlight from the world above in a whirlwind of blue energy .

The tiny reach of outside hope flickered and dimmed, quickly swallowed by surrounding gloom, feeding upon the light with a tireless hunger.

A sound of two small shoes touching down from the sky echoed with a sharp 'click'.

"Him! You..you.._monster_!"

"_Bubbles._" The shadows rumbled, shaking the dark earth.

"Let me go! Whatever it is you did to me you're not going to get away with it! You're..."

"_**What I did to you? What I did to you?**_"

Bubbles glare faded for a moment, doubt creeping like a spider over her eyes at the voices' tone.

Even for Him, it was a voice she had never heard before. .

Not joking. Barely collected. Growling with the sound of some nameless animal.

"_Your self righteous baby blue eyes... You are the one who swallowed the pomegranate seed, little Persephone. You are the one who brought the only contract I am bound to down on us... _"

"What are you talking about?" Bubbles asked, the glare returning as she spun to keep the demon at eye level.

The shadow that was Him spun in unison with her flight, the ends of his arms and legs sifting like sand from hands, and tentacles, to wings, from the claws of a lion, to the talons of a dragon and hooves of living fire...

"_**Doess it make yoour heart sing? Can you feel it dancing in blistering golden shoes upon your soul? Are you happy..my wife?**_"

Bubbles' scream rang endlessly in her own ears as she dived head first into the throbbing shadow, a white hot rage building, burning brighter with every punch she threw into the abyss, radiating a clear blue off her reflected tears...

-_November 17th, 2009 ?:?_-

Bubbles looked on in silent awe as the endless drifting snowflakes reflected the dim light of perpetual winter. They floated by the shadowed depths of her parka hood, muffling all signs of civilization.

Somehow the snow that blanketed the far off city in a soundless wonderland, mixed with the intoxicating smell of new leather from her coat melted together to wash away any thoughts of past anger.

Had there ever been anything to feel angry about?

"Why Canada?" She asked simply, her words blowing playful puffs of warmth in the crisp air.

"Why not?" Him turned where he walked beside her, the icy snow crunching with a hollow sound below his low cut boots as he gave a quick, dog-like shake from head to toe.

"When you can be anywhere, everywhere is somewhere to show off a new outfit."

The snow peppering his pink fur collar and matching fur cuffs of studded western style boots fell to earth with a sparkle that set off the rhinestones upon them.

"What do you think? I know, redundant pants are redundant, but it matches soo well..."

Him sifted his weight for one leg to the other making the legs of his two sizes too tight long black leather pants squeak where they met thin muscle behind his lashing, glossy scorpion tail.

"It is a crying shaame, Townsville's not so keen eye of stunning detail, tragic really." Him purred with a grin of pleasure at the attention looking like a cross between a washed out rocker and a well to do pimp drew from his one person audience.

Bubbles snapped out of a glazed over stare, lowering her eyes to the ground with a guilty look, suddenly very interested with the snow banks passing under her hanging feet.

" And then, the outside world doesn't like to plaay the old games anymore... Maybe it's just as weell, invisibility is sooo terrifically itchy..." Him said, pausing to catch snowflakes on his tongue.

Without its always present belt, his fur lined coat lay completely loose, an open length of dark buttons along its front showing a long patch of bare skin. Even given all this, Bubbles noticed the air near the demon seemed still faintly warm.

" It is pretty here... b ..but the Professor doesn't like us leaving the US without telling him fir..."

"All the more reason for you to be here, you couldn't be safer or more fashionable than when you're with me..."

Him's yellow gaze traveled down to where Bubbles' feet had just touched earth again with a disapproving snort.

"I still can't believe you never learned!"

Bubbles had to admit they were lovely low cut boots, twice as good as any she had seen in magazines. Their soft brushed leather, dyed a vivid periwinkle blue, spoke of a quality that made her long to put aside the uneasy question of just what type of skin it had been in life. Their heels on the other hand...

"Well, a little, but flying is so much faster, and we never had a mom,"

Bubbles a took quick, choppy line of tiny steps forward, her nervous pause at its end nearly tugging her other foot free of its shoe all together.

"...and the Professor has this weird green-brown allergic reaction to..."

Him stepped forward bit by bit, pausing for a breath as Bubbles flailed in fear of falling over, only to be saved at the last moment by the side of the demon's waist as he sifted it nonchalantly to the side.

"That's why you have mee! Now the most important thing about walking in heeels is to move with conviction, they aren't at all forgiving."

Him said, swiftly lifting the powerpuffs' light frame with both claws and redepositing her on his other side facing the opposite direction.

"Yoour every move has to oooze confidence, to scream to the world "I am woman hear me roar!"

Bubbles nodded, trying her best to answer the push from behind with all her memories of how the fashion models on tv walked with a hopping sway. Unfortunately her best only lasted a minute before landing her in a tangled heap.. that somehow included the long length of her new coat and a fire hydrant.

"It's "I am woman hear me roar"; not "I am woman, see me fall and mew pathetically" kitten." Him said with a quince, lifting her up by the elbows and cutting the offending leather. "Oppsy daisy!"

"But..." Bubbles peeped, half floating away from the sidewalk.

"I said "**Oppsy**"!"

"Okay..." Bubbles agreed with a sigh, returning to earth with a sharp click-clank from the loathsome training implements.

Now, don't scuff them..careful.." Him said, eying Bubbles feet as her legs gave another dangerous wobble within their leather confines.

" _My babies._.shoes are one of the great jooys in life, Bubblykins, their care and feeding takes extensive research."

The demon zipped out of existence in an ornate poof of smoke, only to return a moment later, floating against the sunny skyline with a sizable pink DVD box that read ' Sex and the City'.

"Mmm. It's like a gift from me, to me!" Him purred, rubbing the box where it hovered beside his cheek. "Oooh _Me_, we proomised we wouldn't dooo this anymore..But it just** feels sooo good**."

Him gave the box a quick lick before popping it back into nothingness with a growing a smile at her still shaky attempts to walk.

"These are only the staaart of my gifts to you of course.."

"They are?" Bubbles asked with a concerned look from where she was sprawled face first on the sidewalk.

"Of course, after all this isn't any birthday, this is sweet sixteen and already been kissed..." Him put a claw under her chin as she floated up, her inhuman knees unscratched.

"Anyone could give you fancy bobbles.. and I will never be **just anyone**...Yees..yeees I suppose you are old enough now..."

Him smirked through the traces of a icy wind that began to blow at that moment, playing with the hem of his coat.

"Are you coold?"

Bubbles shook her head, only to be buffered by a sharp even stronger wave of wind and snow a moment later, that tossed her through the air like a rag doll, suddenly without a coat.

"Are you cooold?" Him asked again, floating up to meet her.

Bubbles nodded with chattering teeth as Him warped his coat around her from behind.

The warm length of his arms interlaced over her body, their flight falling into sync.

She rested her small weight thoughtfully against his slim arms, feeling a slow, sleepy warmth from the body without any heartbeat...

Who happened to have its chin perched upon the top of her head, watching the expanse of the ocean rise and fall just as intently as she was.

"_Do you know why I hate you girls?_" Came the whisper as dolphins played in the surf below, racing their merged shadow.

For a moment only the gulls wheeling about over silvery schools of tuna broke the silence as Bubbles considered carefully. The answer came so easily she couldn't help but laugh.

"Everyone knows that! It's because we're good and you're..."

"No, no, it's not that simple, why I would have been done with you yeears ago, lambchop. There are plenty of hims and hers' higher on the list to sainthood than you little dolls..."

Him took in a breath above her, an odd, unpracticed sound over clenched teeth.

"Perfect. Such an ugly word, _**perfect**_. There is no such thing you know..at least, there was never suppose to be."

One claw freed itself from around Bubbles, opening to reveal a small spear of light gripped in it's width. As the light within it spun into focus, a scene from long ago played itself out, a flash of light dying down to reveal the wide, innocent eyes of three small girls holding hands, floating above a steaming pot.

" And yet there yoou were one day, made to be **perfect little girls**. Perfect..but no ones perfect..are they? No one can be purely good.._**can they**_?"

The little girls of long ago raced down the streets of a historic Townsville, ripping up streets and crashing through buildings in their very first game of tag. The game grew and grew upon itself, leaving a burned and broken cityscape in its wake.

"But..we are good." Bubbles whispered, reaching out to hold the orb. The circle of light dimmed, melting into nothingness across her fingerless palms.

"Do you know what they say when people out here in the big wide world do something wrong? Something so very unforgivable and dirty?" Him asked quietly. "They all do it sooo often dear, they call it an act of nature."

Their two flying shadows, even traveling faster than many living birds, spent almost five minutes over a bobbing patch of trash, drifting in it's congealed plastic.

"It's just human nature" they say over and oover to tuck themselves in at night. **I am that nature**..that nature that is a part of you girls to, by all rights..._**by my right**_. Sooo sad, to be made hollow of humanity, never growing pass..."

Bubbles looked up from where she had swooped down to help a small albatross tangled in plastic rings atop the floating trash heap, only to watch it fall down again when she opened her hands, its' wings broken.

"No! We're just as human as...but we're good! I'm good, I am!..I..am.." She whispered, watching the spot where it had disappeared for a long moment.

The smooth surface of the ocean gave way to the rocky scores of an island nation, it's landscape dotted here and there with buildings...Or what have once been buildings.

Only sad foundations remained filled with the crumbled bones of old world brick and clay, broken up here and there by heavy layers of paper and cardboard, fashioned to look like walls.

It was the sort of destruction a extra large monster could have done unchecked in Townsville... That the town itself could have magically fixed within a day or two.

But this wasn't Townsville.

"That man down there, do you see him?" Him asked.

Bubbles looked, tears beginning to blur the edges of the blue beams that made up her supervision.

Far, far, below a dark skinned man with a heavy dirty beard sat, propped up against the side of what still stood of a white wall.

His face was webbed by the tracings of premature wrinkles, filled with the powder from the surrounding fallen stone. The man's eyes, glossy and almost unseeing, squinted against pain and late afternoon sunlight.

"That building..it was a hospital wasn't it?"

"Bingo! Now that man, let's call him Jack..." Him said as the figure lifted a small bottle to his lips. "Say some big nasty beastie had decided they wanted to make a salad of him some Tuesday last, would you have rescued him?"

Bubbles nodded as she wriggled out of Him's coat, flying nearer to the sad looking figure.

"Of course, I'm a superhero. We save everyone.. We... "

The two flew closer, unnoticed as a pair of ghosts to the lone man who seemed lost in memories.

"That's the funny thing about hospitals, they're just another building...another saad citizen trying to stay up to code in this topsey turvey world,"

Him reached out, leaning against the last standing wall of the building sending the stone cascading down onto the remains of bent gurneys.

" But oh, the money for that wasn't here was it? But where does it gooo? Who embezzled the funds, that fed the gambling addiction, that lost the funds, that brought the booze, that fueled the temper, that **beat the wife**, that sent her to the very house that Jack didn't build? A shaame, that last **aftershock**...That, now that was mee,"

"No," Bubbles shook her head, tears lining her cheeks."No..You're lying again, you did _all_ of this, you must have!"

Him rolled his eyes as Bubbles began to speed about into a tear fueled flash of blue light, collecting stone and plaster from far off lands and dumping it in small armed truckloads near the destroyed town.

The nearby man ran away screaming from the spot, tossing his seemly cursed bottle.

"Even I can't make something from nothing, dear, anymore than yoour little colds can just go 'poof!'..."

Him picked up the abandoned bottle, taking a drink and making a sour face before tossing it as well.

In the background two little puzzle piece toys popped into being, grabbing the bottle and fighting over it tooth in claw before popping away again.

_"Would you save Jack now? Think of it.. dozens saved everyday, dozens like him that could have done __**anything**__..._"

Bubbles stopped mid-flight, her eyes as bright and mad with purpose as her arms were with two giant bags of rice and grain.

"We save good people from the monsters! They have families and wishes and dreams and..."

"_Aah, the monsters..._ **don't bones braking in the morning just make you smile? Their screams of pain, their cries for mercy...**"

Bubbles stuck up her nose stubbornly, doing her best to pretend not to hear as she tried her superpowered hand again at rebuilding the hospital walls.

"I'm only asking for a tiny bit of atonement for what is already mine...My, my, aren't we especially **hardcore** today,"

Him purred, floating with all the speed of a lazy invisible wind currant to put a clawed hand on her shoulder.

"I must say it's very _**attractive**_...Maybe I shooould take you to work more often hmm?"

Bubbles growled softly, not turning from her failing attempts at construction, her voice trailing to a bitter laugh.

"All that time...all those times we just thought you were some kind of joke, some bad dream. You never seemed..."

"That ingrained? That powerful? That marvelously seasoned? You girls really thought I spent all of my days now playing 'edit wikipedia' and 'hide the car keys'? _Behind the dresser drawers next to the floor lamp by the waay,_"

Him rolled over in the air with a long list he suddenly conjured, checking what looked like names off on it with a bright amber poison from the tip of his long tail.

"Townsville does have a awful way of making anyone forget themselves, I really think it is something in that _**atrocious tap water**_...But dear, Stonehenge was my Lincoln Logs set, the pyramids my Barbie dream house, World War II my ..**weell, you know..**."

The demon wiggled from the paper warping the list had twisted into, leaning seriously on an elbow where he flew.

"Incidentally little one, if you are at a party don't have that extra drink,"

Bubbles dived down out of earshot, her heat vision vision burning brightly here and there as she began to reconstitute some of the other buildings below as best she could. Him rattled on, unfazed.

" Before you know it's five years later, and you're just getting a moments peace after your grueling Le Cordon Bleu classes. But four miserable little voices are already wailing for corn flakes and before you can very politely say if they don't _**all shut their worthless traps Papa is going to take the next one who makes a peep out back to the wood shed and**_..."

Him paused as Bubbles started to finally show signs of slowing, grabbing her with a helpful, dusting claw.

" Never mind... all will come in time..in time...We haven't much time..Your last gift dear, before midnight clear, to hang as a bell in our heart...My name."

"But I thought you always said..."

"It's not a broken rule if it is my rule to brake, and your's to take. Now then...A good spot."

Even after four years, the surprise was still there, her wide eyes peeking through the parting fog of faster than powerpuff demonic travel.

Of all the places in the world to have been pulled to by a figure of darkness the old Townsville cathedral would have been next to last on anyones list.

Though it now stood in the shadow cast by the art museum, two times its height and that concealed it from the main highway, the Neo-Gothic style cathedral had once been the tallest building downtown.

Two ancient looking oak trees, markers of this long ago time, stood on ether side of the main tower, their thick branches whisked by the night wind.

A great horned owl hooted, happily settling on a branch with a satisfied ruffle of its' feathers.

"Heere..hereee...can neeear..." Him whispered, alighting with a single foot upon the steeple. Bubbles leaned to the side where she drifted to sit cross-legged, too curious to resist the odd game of telephone.

"That's it?" She asked.

Him nodded with a grin.

"But I've heard that name before..it's a town's name!"

"It's many towns, and a general tooo, but that's nether here nor there. Everyone is soo fond of my name in the history books..."

Bubbles put a fingerless hand to her month, her smooth brow wrinkled in puzzled consideration.

"But I've _said_ your name before and nothing..."

"Aw, but you never said it where I could heear did you?"

Bubbles shook her head. To the side, the empty branch that had once held the owl sent up grey smoke.

"Well,That makes aaall the difference..."

"Like this?" Bubbles asked, leaning over to whisper back into the demons' pointed ear.

Him shivered from head to toe as Bubbles smiled where she sat kicking her feet playfully.

"Just like that...so wonderful.." Him giggled, hugging the powerpuff in glee.

"Ow!" She yelped, pulling her arm away from the edge of his grip.

"Ow?" The demon retorted with wide eyes, drawing back from the embrace.

Bubbles stood holding her shaking arm. On its side, three wounds, perfectly lining up with a oversized claw, pooled dots of bright red blood.

The teenager looked up, her watery eyes and hair a washed out shade of their normal brilliant colors.

"My..powers..."

"_Ow_..." Bright yellow eyes wrinkled into cheerful slits, watching carefully.

Moments later color washed over the created hero, closing the wounds upon her arm and unbottling a breath she did not even know she was holding.

Him reached out after Bubbles spoke his name again in a softer curious whisper.

The two watched silently as the new tiny claw prick of blood lasted only a handful of shared half unspoken 'Mississippi'ed counted moments.

When Bubbles looked up at last, for the 3rd time, Hims' smile was glowing nearly ear to ear.

"You know Bubblikins, sweetheart, light of my life...There is still a way we could put this whole nasty business behind us...an itty bitty little one time loophole made just for you, at this very hour."

"There is?" She asked, hopping into the air.

In the distance the main clock of Townsville city hall began to toll midnight, rocking the town in its' sleep with its' familiar sound.

_One._

"It's very very simple: All you need to doo is pop yourself back home and tell your sisters my glorious name," Him said with a playful wave of his claw. "Have them speak it, unto the night, before midnight's flight, and our bondage shall be broken!"

"Just like that?" Bubbles asked with a growing smile.

_Two._

"Poof! Instant divorce!" Him agreed, patting her on the head, as she turned to fly off, only to pause.

"You're going to kill them, aren't you?"

A small voice, the voice of a little girl more than any teenager.

_Three._

"No."

"You're lying again."

_Four._

The sound of heels, small and delicate interrupted any response from the demon , drawing his gaze toward the slow progress of Bubbles along a narrow gable ledge.

She wobbled like a tightrope walker, arms out and level, balancing against a gravity that all but ignored her when awake.

"Blossom and Buttercup always said I was silly doing this..I use to do it all the time on all the high buildings, balancing," She giggled with a wistfully look to the horizon where the warm few lights of Townsville still burned before returning to looking at her feet.

"You Bubblehead! What's the point? It's not like you can fall!" Bubbles recited in a perfect imitation of Buttercup, her last words wavering.

_Five._

Him took a breath as if to say something when Bubbles turned with a half twirl where she stood, arms still outstretched, her mouth drawn into the smallest of smiles.

"What is it like to fall?"

Her eyes began to gloss over with tears.

_Six._

Only the demon watched, as the small girls' lipless mouth slowly spoke his true name aloud.

_Seven._

Only the night was a second witness as her small body fell over backwards from view, set to the music of the city hall clock.

_Eight._

_Nine._

Only the crack of wood giving in to flesh.

_Ten._

Only the sound of a roar of pain mixed with a sharp scream.

_Eleven_.

Flapping skeletal wings rimmed the shape of a red skinned lion, its' black mane mixing with the long curled beard of its' humanoid face, stained with blood of the limp figure it held in three rows of bright white fangs.

_Twelve_.

The creature tossed the girls' body sightly in the air like a mouse.

Its' body shifted back into the tall, lean, human shape of Him, wearing his an everyday pink and red fur coat and glossy black thigh length boots, its' not so common lobster clawed arms reaching to support her small weight.

His tail still lashed, making a loud clicking sound, drowning out the line of curses that echoed in the night, spoken in some long dead language at last ending in barely understandable English.

"**Woman! What were you...!**"

Bubbles groaned, the world coming back into focus, meeting her vision with Him's face, the deep cut mirroring the one on her own cheek bleeding freely, mixing with the line of his black lipstick.

"You... _care_..." She whispered, reaching out a hand to wipe away the line of blood.

Him froze, shaking slightly at her touch, and still more as the hand slipped to her mouth, a weak, childlike laugh painted with crimson.

Around them the night had given into mist in the light of the coming day, threatening a winter storm as they alighted in the cathedral courtyard.

Him placed Bubbles against the wall that rimmed that forgotten place, where she leaned against it heavily, feeling the support of old stone in a still swimming haze.

"_**The rain..is warm tonight...**_"

Him leaned against the wall beside the powerpuff matter-of-factly, facing the other direction as if memorizing the details of faded angel topped tombstones.

Bubbles mumbled as she half opened her eyes, the blood red darkness under her light hair slowly fading as her bright colors returned.

"I'm scared but.. I'm not... scared of this, what comes next, anymore..."

"_**You should be, you know...**_" Him said, his demonic voice taking on an odd richness at a whisper.

An umbrella appeared with a puff of soundless smoke over her head, its red fabric trimmed with black lace.

"Are you?" Bubbles asked, already half asleep where she stood, her face half buried into the wet fur of Hims' collar, long dotted with dripping make up.

"_**Me? Frightened?**_ .._Me_?" The lone voice asked no one.

His voice was a soft warmth as it teleported away, slipping into the witching hour.

"_Damn it all to Hell..._"

The umbrella swayed, still buffeted by the driving rain, its' laced edge casting a gentle shadow.

Bubbles slept.

_Epilogue_

-_November 18th, 2009 3:30 pm_-

**The City of Townsville...is havin' a party! Can't you just feel it?**

A rather upscale looking house sat in a everyday street in the suburbs of a town with mile high skyscrapers.

Unlike so many other days however, on this one very special date, the far off city streets were just as blissfully boring and mundane as the houses' own.

**Yes, sir! After days of non-stop work, Townsville's own native daughters have made this a day of rest for everyone...Aw, they..grow..up..so fast...**

Cars sped along merrily un-stomped, and the sound of diamond necklaces being lawfully paid for clicked with a happy ring of old fashion cash registers.

Meanwhile on the roof of the Utonium home, an unnoticed shadow sat in silent contentment, a small flock of tiny sparrows perched upon it's shoulders and the top of a masked skull head.

The upper circular windows and the lower glass panes blinked on with flashing strobe lights, their patterns set to a pounding bass beat... as a skeleton hand reached out to softly pet a small feathered back...

**Ah hem, but now is a time for celebration! And everyone knows no one throws a birthday bash like the... Powerpuff Girls!**

In the main living room a crowd of teenagers milled, dressed in everything from hastily made toilet paper mummies to slapped together bits and pieces of discount Halloween trappings.

In fact, the only ones who seemed to have costumes that truly matched the very detailed Egyptian themed decorations were shattered through the room:

Buttercup zipping back and forth over everyone in a glittery Cleopatra headdress, and Blossom, as a bow and arrow carrying Menhit, was in hot pursuit, talking all the while.

"He chose Anubis, Buttercup, _Anubis_! Do you know what that _means_?"

"Bubbles has a thing for geeks that still sleep with Star Wars sheets?"

Blossom paused, heroically fishing a half drown Mitch out of the punch bowl, still chattering at a mile a minute.

"No, it's a amazingly insightful decision without the overrated trappings of Osiris , but that's still not as blatantly _presumptuous_ as Set!"

"Oh." Buttercup made a face, wrinkling her flat nose as she carefully floated the other direction from where Blossom stared, glossy eyed.

**A properly **_**chaperoned**_** bash that is. You get down with your parental self, Professor!... Oo, cake!**

Bubbles, as a simple handmaiden in a short black wig with darkened eyes, floated in the middle of the throng. She held the arm of a taller thin figure in a black jackal mask who still only came level with the Professors' chin, standing on two perfectly normal non-flying feet.

"Now what did you say your name was?" The professor asked with a grin around his pipe.

"Um it's...his name..." Bubbles fidgeted with a gulp,hiding halfway behind the boy's elbow and invoking a soft chuckle from behind the mask.

"Um..his name is.." Bubbles began again, taking a deep breath as if trying to draw up all of an inner courage.

Suddenly, the music swelled to a roar as the lights dimmed to half their normal power, sending up a whoop from the crowd.

"Would you kids excuse me for a moment?"

The Professor glared, picking up a especially paint worn looking bullhorn and raising it roofward.

"Buttercup! Turn _up_ those lights, turn _down_ that volume, and melt the lock back on the liquor cabinet right this instant!"

The deafening music died back down, the rising lighting revealing a grumbling Buttercup floating back upstairs with an unopened bottle of vodka.

The watchful father paused for a moment, ear raised toward the stairway like a wise hunter of disobedience.

"I don't hear any _wielding_ young lady!"

The mask lifted slowly with a long fingered hand to reveal a fresh teenage face.

Although his complexion was far from perfect, high cheek bones and light auburn skin around expressive green eyes spoke of a certain weather blown handsomeness, his messy mop of black hair somehow complementing the wisps of a future goatee.

His voice, when it came at last, was a soft and and meek musical sound.

"My n..ame i..is Joseph, Mr. U..utonium."

'Joseph?' Bubbles mouthed, quickly facing away from her father and sisters.

"Hi ..Joey." Blossom said with a giggle, floating nearer.

"Blossom? Yoohoo, Blossom!" Bubbles huffed, drifting up to wave a hand in front of her face.

"H..hi." The boy replied awkwardly, stepping in a quick half circle to put Bubbles between the prying pink eyes and himself.

"My, what a well behaved young man!" The professor grinned, not noticing the small drama. "I always knew my little Bubbles was an excellent judge of character. It's nice to meet you.."

"Oh no, P..professor U..tonium. The honor is all m..mine. I love your t..thesis on advanced gene mapping and stem cell regeneration. I found them v..very intelligently simulating."

Three sets of wide eyes stared in shock at the boy as the Professor's pipe dropped from a slack jaw.

"You actually _read_ one of the Professor's papers without falling asleep?" Buttercup gapped.

"Yes I would like to b..be a doctor..s..someday." Joseph spoke even softer, shy green eyes meeting the girl's own. "Buttercup is it?"

"Yeah." Buttercup mumbled, glancing away with a slight pinkness to her cheeks.

"Hot dog! " The Professor hopped in barely controlled glee. "Joey, would you like to see my lab someday, son?"

"Professor!" Bubbles said with a surprised laugh.

"Would you like to see my encyclopedia set?" Blossom peeped in a warm tone.

"No he wouldn't!" Bubbles snapped as Joseph shook his head in agreement from his new perch, safely lifted a few feet in the air by the pigtail superhero with no effort at all.

"But..." Blossom began, suddenly interrupted by a loud ringing buzz.

_Flying at a high speed_

A pink and green light zipped to the phone, an old fashion 1920's model made of white porcelain the major had sent just hours before as a gift.

Just like every day of the last eleven years, Blossom got there first.

"Yes? What is it mayor? A monster's destroying the annual pumpkin pie fest? We're on it!"

_Having the courage_

In the background a groan of disappointment rose up from the party, coupled with the sound of balloons, blow up plastic chairs, a spirits deflating.

_Getting over crisis I'll rescue the people_

"C'mon girls! Let's Go!"

"Right!" Bubbles and Buttercup chorused with a nod, zipping into the sky as the crowd poured into the street from the house, cheering.

_Kicking out a bad guy_

"Okay..now if we just.." Blossom began as they soared higher into the open air, a dance of red and gold fall leaves swirling around them.

"Hey, where's Bubbles?" Buttercup asked as they turned back.

_Beating up a monster_

Both blinked in open mouthed shock at the thin boy who now happened to be kissing her full on the mouth and progressing nearly to her tonsils.

In the entanglement of the passionate farewell kiss it was hard to tell where the human boy's face ended and the powerpuff's began, anchored to the ground with an arm like a bottled firefly, and drawn in with the other by fingers pressed into her long hair.

_Fighting against evil_

When they finally broke apart to a growing 'aw' from the crowd, and the unmistakable thud of a fainting Professor, Bubbles' cheeks were a bright red that even the cold breeze of flying took more than a moment to fade.

She flew quickly up pass her sisters, making the two struggle to keep up with her sudden energy, looking on with a mixture of awe and regret .

_I'll rescue this town_

Where there had for so many years been teasing and jokes an unsteady silence grew.

"Joey's really great, I'm sorry for what I said before, Bubbles. I feel just awful.." Blossom lowered her eyes, elbowing Buttercup.

"He's okay, for a dork.." Buttercup agreed in her way, the sight pinkness returning to her cheeks.

_You know I'm a super girl_

"Oh girls..you don't know what that means to me.." Bubbles hugged her sisters to each side as they flew on, stealing a glance out of the corner of her already tearstained eye.

Among the crowd, completely forgotten in the cheering, a jackal masked figure dipped down in a slow graceful stage bow.

_Yes I'm a plucky girl_

"Gah, now you're going to start crying when you're happy to? I just don't get you, Bubblehead." Buttercup rolled her eyes.

The serious atmosphere broke away moments later with the sound of a bright clear voice.

_I never say die_

"Tag, you're it!"

The pink trail cut through gray cold, clouds above where a shadowed skull headed figure still sat, now rimmed by black eyed sparrow corpses chirping again happily, their flesh loose on bleached, moth eaten wings.

"Hey, no fair! Not so fast, Blossom!"

_No one can stop me_

As the beams of light melted into the late afternoon sky, the boy rocked back on his heels with a growing smile..Before he to was gone, leaving behind a laughter as faint as the wind.

**And once again the day will be saved..thanks to..The Powerpuff Girls!**

_'Cause I like to fight!_

Below the three girls the almost unnoticeable form of a galloping horse kept perfect time, its' skeletal body reflecting the clear, prismatic brilliance of the dipping sun.

-_? 2009 ?_-

In the blackness of an eternal mists a cat yawned. Its' bright pink tongue stood out in sharp contrast to it's glossy black coat as it pawed in a circle, settling down again to snuggle into a warm lap of pink fur, with the contentment of three curled tails.

_"When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle's on a poodle and the poodle's eating noodles..."_

Three sets of yellow eyes looked up silently at the large claws flipping the pages of a picture book, matching green gingham dresses with oversized white buttons setting off their own red skin.

The oldest held the toddler of the group as it sucked on a Powerpuff Girl brand pacifier, letting it play with her diamond necklace while they listened with perched, pointed ears.

_"..they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle..."_

In the darkness that enrobed all but the small semi-circle of reading light around a set of hoofed feet in the plush red carpet, the slow creek of a door opening echoed slowly.

A greeting to the arrival, as the mists swirled playful, was edged with the brightness of a smile.

"Giirls..._**Daddy has someone very special he'd like you to meet**_..."

The smallest of the three sprang up, toddled over and offering the visitor a dogeared copy of 'The Cat in The Hat' in her tiny lobster claws with a pleading look, before falling over on her diapered bottom.

In the background as the lighting grew brighter, the glinting yellow eyes of a hundred small faces looked with a snap toward the door.

Bubbles dropped her bag.


End file.
